Ontario does not need its…

Ontario does not need its competitiveness restored. There are plenty of opportunities for economic growth and housing within the existing Planning Act and Official Plans of towns and cities in this province.

Bill 66 is an instrument of deregulation, to over-ride, by-pass and/or blatantly disregard hard-won environmental protection legislation, such as the Clean Waters Act, Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Act, and Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act.

I do not want Bill 66 to remove the protection of the Planning Act and Provincial Policy Statements for significant built heritage resources and/or cultural landscapes anywhere in the province, nor threaten our Greenbelt, sensitive natural habitat, and important farmland -- some of the richest on the continent.

What decade, nay, what century is the current provincial government envisioning? Based on the implications of Bill 66, the government is unaware of the threat of climate change; of strategies to minimize Ontarians' carbon footprints; to build homes, cities, towns, and jobs for the 21st century!

Millions of future Ontarians will still need clean drinking water and healthy Ontario-grown food. They will need jobs and homes and services located close together and accessible by foot, bike, or public transit -- not sprawling distances best crossed by personal car.

Bill 66, and by implication, opening up the greenbelt to development, may seem like a great solution to those like me, who cannot afford to own a single-family house in the same city my parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and I did previously! But I gladly choose a different dwelling, and lifestyle, because wiser, denser use of precious land is required in the 21st century.

Opening up protected tracts of land to development and more urban/suburban sprawl is not the right answer; it is a short-sighted quick-fix which will benefit the wealthy, not the many.

How about, to spur economic growth, the government instead examines policies and bills which would:
- shorten, not lengthen, the increasing gap in wealth and opportunity between have-and have-not Ontarians?
- stop subsidizing the fossil fuel industry and those dependent upon it, like the auto sector? If public transit was further improved, the money Ontarians spent on cars would still be spent in Ontario - maybe on home ownership? Maybe on saving money and investing it?
- create jobs in the green/carbon-free industry
- rather than focusing on the cost of hydro-electricity in Ontario, incentivize solar and wind power, and energy conservation, and density?
- put a focus on cleaning up the Great Lakes (especially Erie) - that creates jobs, don't you know?

As a matter of fact, the Planning Act and PPS has spurred growth in the cultural heritage and planning industries! Jobs!

Jobs are important, earning a living to keep a roof overhead is essential, equally is clean water, air, and land.

Take the long view, Honourable Premier, and turn your critical lens not on deregulating policies of conservation, but on your - and our - legacy, on how you and we will answer the only question that matters, the one OUR children, grand-children, or great-grand-children will ask us, "did you do everything in your power to stop climate change?"